From the Editors
Posted by estiator at 13 April, at 16 : 48 PM Print
Merry Christmas!
No, that’s not a mistake, and no, we’re not serious. It just seems an appropriate greeting for an issue that falls in the same month as April Fool’s Day and Easter!
So, now that we’ve established that the editorial and publishing staff at Estiator has a sense of humor, we recommend that you check out our new humor entry, “The Willy-Nicky Emails,” a fictitious exchange of emails between retired Vasilis and his nephew Nikos, who has taken over the family business. Has senior editor and columnist Constantine Kolitsas just created the restaurant answer to My Big Fat Greek Wedding? We’ll let you decide!
Thumbing through this issue, it’s packed with some great content. Senior contributor Michael Kaminer turns in a great travelogue from Montreal, “Greek Montreal’s Symbolic Home,” where he discovers the roots of the city’s Greek side. He follows this up with “Grape Expectations,” a look at Greek wine with some of the best sommeliers in Greek America singing its praises (recommendations included). In the meantime, in a special report by contributor Nicholas Vlamis, Estiator takes a close look at the state-by-state nationally coordinated legislative effort to remove the tip wage credit. The recent effort by the One Fair Wage movement currently being considered in Connecticut is also underway in 12 other states.
In his monthly Managing for Success column, restaurateur and consultant Constantine Kolitsas vents his frustration at how internet companies have taken over how restaurants market themselves, take orders, take reservations, and communicate with their customers. The red flags he raises may not even be on your radar yet, so make sure to check them out so you can understand how they may be impacting your livelihood.
In our Greek pages, Athens correspondent Gina Kallitsi ventures north to Thessaloniki, Greece’s “second capital,” to enjoy a meal at To Haroupi, a gastronomic destination helmed by chef Manolis Papoutsakis. For her Greek Products column, she heads to Xanthi, another city in northern Greece, where she visits the Dose Yefsi company (whose name translates to “Give It Flavor”), producers of Greek spices and specialty goods.
In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, our Greek pages include some beautiful Easter recipes, as well as a look at some strange Easter customs that take place around the world (as if cracking red eggs at midnight before consuming a soup of liver, tripe, and innards wasn’t funky enough). Well, dear reader, we hope that you enjoy this issue, that your Pascha is a beautiful one, and that Santa brings you some really cool gifts.
Kalo Pascha!
The Editorial and Publishing Staff
